THEME: SDG Education - Interview with Flemming Bridal Rasmussen (Head of the SDG HUB)
The SDG Hub supports student and staff led SDG initiatives. You can find out more from this interview with Flemming Bridal Rasmussen (Head of the SDG HUB and Chief Adviser in the Rector's Office).
What’s your role with supporting SDG Education with teachers and students?
We see it as our role to create opportunities for the students who want to work with the SDGs and sustainability at SDU. We do this through The SDG Pool, The Sustainability Academy, etc. This year we also participated in the SDG Camp, which the Department of Business & Management held for the second year. Common to these extracurricular activities is that the students are given the opportunity to supplement their academic competencies from the studies with "softer" competencies in relation to collaboration, personal communication and at the same time try their hand at sustainability challenges from companies.
What’s the SDG HUB’s current focus and how can teachers and students get involved?
As a starting point, we are always curious about and interested in collaborating with both teachers and students on the SDGs and sustainability. We can offer our own manpower, creativity and assistance with practical tasks. In January 2022, we will hold a conference together primarily with researchers from the Faculty of Humanities, but also from the The Faculty of Business and Social Sciences. The subject is inner sustainability. With the latest report from the UN Climate Panel, it has been made quite clear that we humans are behind climate changes. So the climate challenges are no longer a matter solely for the technical and scientific disciplines, but call for a great humanistic effort. In addition, we are in the process of considering the Sustainability Academy 2.0. We are here in dialogue with researchers at SDU Kolding, just as Kolding Municipality has shown great interest in participating.
What opportunities are there for teachers and students to collaborate on SDG projects? What about interdisciplinary projects?
As part of SDU's forthcoming climate plan, I expect that SDU will to a much greater extent use our buildings, outdoor areas, etc. as 'living labs', where teachers and students can develop and test sustainable solutions.
The SDG Collaboratorium has just been launched, how could teachers or students get involved with this?
SDU's SDG Collaboratorium (SDG Collab) is a researcher-initiated and driven network with a focus on both strengthening and rethinking the collaboration across disciplines, faculties, etc., but also between SDU and the outside world. I know that the members of the network are very interested to hear from both researchers, teachers and students if you have an idea for a project or something you would like to try out. So there I would suggest contacting associate professor and head of education Lykke Margot Ricard - lmri@iti.sdu.dk, who is chair of the network.
Have more questions? Please contact Flemming Bridal Rasmussen via flbr@sdu.dk.